"WHY SO CRYPTO?"

Bishop Alan Wilson, who is Bishop of Buckingham in the Church of England, writes in his latest blog post titled, Why So Crypto?, about openness v. secrecy:

Before leaving the question of politics, I have been wondering why some of the English have such a fascination with secrecy, and such a horror of public discussion? What’s wrong with vigorous public discussion of points of difference?

Why so much crypto and secrecy?

The Bible is full of open disputation. In Galatians Peter and Paul have a technicolor public row. In the Acts various apostles fall out with each other and take their separate ways. In the gospels disciples vie with one another in front of all the others (or at any rate their mothers do) for hot spots in the Kingdom of Heaven.

All this is done without shame, or any particular feeling that it would have been very much better if the elite had stitched everything up behind closed doors. The only attempt to do this (the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15) was a brilliant day out, but its conclusions didn't last five minutes — soon enough Christians were eating non-kosher food anyway, and Peter and Paul arguing as forcibly as ever.

I strongly urge you to read the entire post. The post is instructive to all in positions of power who must make choices between openness and secrecy. Of course, privacy is sometimes necessary, but in cases where it is not, where the major reason for disallowing public discussion is so as not to be seen in dispute, then rethinking is in order.

Bishop Alan's post is as applicable to our own hierarchy in the Episcopal Church as it is to the leadership in the Church of England.

The kitschy gremlin gargoyle pictured at the head of the post is lifted from Bishop Alan's post.

BOAT RIDE FROM PORTREE

What follows is a picture-essay, with not many words, of photos from the boat ride which Cathy and I took out of Portree harbor on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

 

The ever-changing views were lovely, and my pictures are far better than I'd dreamed.

 

We moved over the water and, as the sky changed color, the water and the rocks changed color.

 

The sky began to capture more of my interest...

 

...and even more.

 

The combination of the sky and the reflection on the water...I'm running out of words. I said that the post would be a picture essay, didn't I?

 

Bright blue skies mixed with clouds from one direction, and, from another, only low clouds with no sky visible.

 

And didn't I say ever-changing?

 

This photo blows me away. I'm deeply grateful that the sky caught my attention.

Does looking at the pictures from the boat ride give me more pleasure than the boat ride itself? Surely not! But I'm having a grand time with this post.

Cathy took photos on the ride, too, and she captured pictures of wildlife with her better camera, which I was not able to do with mine. I extend my public offer to Cathy to send me whichever of her photos that she chooses, with or without commentary, and I will publish them in another post.

FEAST DAY OF THOMAS TRAHERNE - METAPHYSICAL POET

THE VISION

Flight is but preparative. The sight
Is deep and infinite,
Ah me! 'tis all the glory, love, light, space,
Joy, beauty and variety
That doth adorn the Godhead's dwelling-place;
'Tis all that eye can see.
Even trades themselves seen in celestial light,
And cares and sins and woes are bright.

Order the beauty even of beauty is,
It is the rule of bliss,
The very life and form and cause of pleasure;
Which if we do not understand,
Ten thousand heaps of vain confused treasure
Will but oppress the land.
In blessedness itself we that shall miss,
Being blind, which is the cause of bliss.

First then behold the world as thine, and well
Note that where thou dost dwell.
See all the beauty of the spacious case,
Lift up thy pleas'd and ravisht eyes,
Admire the glory of the Heavenly place
And all its blessings prize.
That sight well seen thy spirit shall prepare,
The first makes all the other rare.

Men's woes shall be but foils unto thy bliss,
Thou once enjoying this:
Trades shall adorn and beautify the earth,
Their ignorance shall make thee bright;
Were not their griefs Democritus his mirth?
Their faults shall keep thee right:
All shall be thine, because they all conspire
To feed and make thy glory higher.

To see a glorious fountain and an end,
To see all creatures tend
To thy advancement, and so sweetly close
In thy repose: to see them shine
In use, in worth, in service, and even foes
Among the rest made thine:
To see all these unite at once in thee
Is to behold felicity.

To see the fountain is a blessed thing,
It is to see the King
Of Glory face to face: but yet the end,
The glorious, wondrous end is more;
And yet the fountain there we comprehend,
The spring we there adore:
For in the end the fountain best is shown,
As by effects the cause is known.

From one, to one, in one to see all things,
To see the King of Kings
But once in two; to see His endless treasures
Made all mine own, myself the end
Of all his labours! 'Tis the life of pleasures!
To see myself His friend!
Who all things finds conjoined in Him alone,
Sees and enjoys the Holy One.

Thomas Traherne - (1637-1674)

From Poets.org:

Thomas Traherne, the son of a shoemaker, was born in 1637 in Hereford, England. He received his education from the University of Oxford and was ordained as an Anglican clergyman in 1660. Traherne first served in a parish near Credenhill and later became the chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.

Further biographical information and a brief description of Traherne's works may be found at the links above and below.

Traherne's work was personally influential on the thought of such notables as Thomas Merton, Dorothy Sayers, Elizabeth Jennings and C. S. Lewis, who called Centuries of Meditations "almost the most beautiful book in English."

From Wikipedia.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EPISCOPAL CHURCH!

St. John's Episcopal Church

From Margaret at Leave It Lay Where Jesus Flang It:

The Episcopal Church was born today in 1785 --in Philadelphia... What a terrifying and exhilarating time those post-Revolutionary war years must have been --establishing and experimenting with new governmental forms --and in the church, we became autonomous from the Church of England. (Well --at least that's the myth...) And, some clergy concluded that their ordination vows required them to remain loyal to the crown and the bishops who ordained them, and they fled to places where the crown and their bishops still ruled.

And, of course, you should click on over to Margaret's blog and read the rest. She speaks her thoughts on matters of authoriteh and more.

I thank God for the Episcopal Church, warts and all, where I found a home after 60-plus years in another denomination. At the very first service I attended at St. John's Episcopal Church, after several months in the wilderness, I felt as though I had come home.

SURPRISE PERFORMANCE IN CAFÉ IRUÑA IN PAMPLONA, SPAIN

Surprise performance of AGAO's Opera Choir "Premier Ensemble" in Café Iruña of Pamplona, Spain. Celebration of the "European Opera Days 2010".

Organized by the " Asociación Gayarre Amigos de la Ópera de Navarra " (AGAO) www.agao.es

Collaborates: Pamplona 2016

Doug strikes again. Enjoy!

PUNS FOR EDUCATED MINDS - PART 2

14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

17. A backward poet writes inverse.

18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine.

21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, “I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.”

22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says “Dam!”

23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, “I've lost my electron.” The other says “Are you sure?” The first replies, “Yes, I'm positive.”

25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

The end.

Again, don't blame me, blame Doug. And yes, I've seen some of these before, too.

JESUS AND MO - BLUNT

Click on the strip for the larger view.

From Jesus and Mo.

REBUKE, BUT NO PENALTY...YET

From The Huffington Post:

A book written by two Creighton University faculty members is erroneous and “harmful to one's moral and spiritual life,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says.

“The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology” presents views that differ from the Catholic Church's traditional teachings prohibiting premarital sex, homosexual acts, contraception and artificial insemination, the bishops say.
The book was published in 2008 by Todd Salzman, chairman of Creighton's theology department, and Michael G. Lawler, a professor emeritus in theology.

The volume says, for instance, that while many theologians feel the Bible speaks clearly on the issue of homosexuality, the Bible is in fact “far from clear and unambiguous” on the topic.

Deacon Tim McNeil, chancellor of the Omaha Archdiocese, said the conference's rebuke this month comes with no penalty against the professors. But Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha “is confident that Creighton officials will deal with this in a manner that is consistent with the mission of a Catholic university,” McNeil said. (My emphasis)

Hmm. The rebuke comes with no penalty, however, the Archbishop's words to the officials of the university could be read as tinged with threat, so perhaps the most we can say is that no penalty has been imposed, yet.

Creighton, operated by the Jesuits, sent out a statement Wednesday that said it is “fully committed to the Catholic tradition” and that the institution “accepts as authoritative the statement” of the conference.

But Creighton “is nonetheless mindful of its obligation to honor the academic freedom of individual faculty members,” the statement said. It added that Pope Benedict XVI has reaffirmed “the great value of academic freedom.”

Take that! Whether Pope Benedict still places "great value on academic freedom" remains to be seen.

The book could well give hope to Catholic gays and lesbians in faithful partnerships that they could remain within the church, in good conscience, without living under the constraints of celibacy. That's not to speak of the positive influence of the book in helping to ease the consciences of heterosexual couples in matters of sex and conception. And why is the church in the bedrooms anyway?

One likely result of the public rebuke will be to bump up sales of the book.

The warning by the bishops brings back not-so-fond memories of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum or Index of Forbidden Books.

Thanks to Ann V.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN

I'm much better at the brotherhood of
man thing, he said, when I can afford to
live in a good neighborhood.

From StoryPeople

PUNS FOR EDUCATED MINDS

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4 A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: “You stay here; I'll go on a head.”

13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Don't blame me. Blame Doug. I have 13 more for another post. Thrilling, yes?